White
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| White | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Hex triplet | #FFFFFF | |
| RGBB | (r, g, b) | (255, 255, 255) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (-°, 0%, 100%) |
| Source | By definition | |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | ||
White is the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum.[1] "White" is also the color of objects that reflect light of all parts of the visible spectrum equally, and are not dull (see grey). It is sometimes described as an achromatic color, like black.
As a shade, white has the highest possible brightness, 100%, and has no hue. The impression of white light can be created by mixing appropriate intensities of the primary colors of light — red, green and blue — a process called additive mixing, but the illumination provided by this technique has significant differences from that produced by incandescence.
In nature, the color white results when transparent fibers, particles, or droplets are in a transparent matrix of a substantially different refractive index. Examples include classic "white" substances such as sugar, foam, pure sand or snow, cotton, clouds, milk, etc. Crystal boundaries and imperfections can also make otherwise transparent materials white, as in the case of milky quartz or the microcrystalline structure of a seashell. This is also true for artificial paints and pigments, where the color white results when finely divided transparent material of a high refractive index is suspended in a contrasting binder. Typically paints contain calcium carbonate and/or synthetic rutile with no other pigments if a white color is desired.
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[edit] Shade
[edit] Paint
In painting, white can be crafted by reflecting ambient light from a white pigment, although the ambient light must be white light, or else the white pigment will appear the color of the light. White when mixed with black produces gray. To art students, the use of white can present particular problems, and there is at least one training course specializing in the use of white in art. There are also speculations about the use of white and other colors.
[edit] White light
Until Newton's work became accepted, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light; and that other colors were formed only by adding something to light. Newton demonstrated this was not true by passing white light through a prism, then through another prism. If the colors were added by the prism, the second prism should have added further colors to the single-colored beam. Since the single-colored beam remained a single color, Newton concluded that the prism merely separated the colors already present in the light. White light is the effect of combining the visible colors of light in equal proportions.
In the science of lighting, there is a continuum of colors of light that can be called "white". One set of colors that deserves this description is the color emitted via the process called incandescence, by a black body at various relatively-high temperatures. For example, the color of a black body at a temperature of 2848 kelvins matches that produced by domestic incandescent light bulbs. It is said that "the color temperature of such a light bulb is 2848 K". The white light used in theatre illumination has a color temperature of about 3200 K. Daylight has a nominal color temperature of 5400 K (called equal energy white), but can vary from a cool red up to a bluish 25,000 K. Not all black body radiation can be considered white light: the background radiation of the universe, to name an extreme example, is only a few kelvins and is quite invisible.
[edit] Standard whites
Standard whites are often defined with reference to the International Commission on Illumination's (CIE's) chromaticity diagram. These are the D series of standard illuminating. Illuminated D65, originally corresponding to a color temperature of 6,500 K, is taken to represent standard daylight.
[edit] Computer color temperature
Computer displays often have a color temperature control, allowing the user to select the color temperature (usually from a small set of fixed values) of the light emitted when the computer produces the electrical signal corresponding to "white". The RGB coordinates of white are 255 255 255.
[edit] White in human culture
[edit] Animals
- Butterflies of subfamily Pierinae of family Pieridae are commonly referred to as Whites, and the term forms part of many of the butterflies of this group, for example, Bath White.
- Albino animals are considered sacred in almost all cultures.
[edit] Astronomy
- Stars of stellar class A are white.
- The planet Venus is white when observed above its layer of clouds.
[edit] Board Games
- White is one of the two opponents in many board games of abstract strategy, such as go, chess, and checkers.
[edit] Computers
- A white hat describes a person who is ethically opposed to the abuse of computer systems, in contrast with a black hat, a person who abuses computer systems.
[edit] Cultural symbolism
- In general, in the Western world, white is associated with a positive connotation. Activists and race theorists consider this association a result of Western racism[citation needed]. Many negative expressions with "black" have an equivalent positive expression with "white".
- A white rose represents innocence in Western Civilization.
- In ancient China, white was the symbol of West and Metal, one of the main five colors.
- In Chinese, Japanese and Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning, death, and ghosts. In India white also stands for Peace and Purity
[edit] Ethnography
- The term white is often used in the West to denote the race of fair-skinned Caucasoids people of European descent with pale to white skin color, whose skin color actually ranges from pink to pale brown. It has suggested that the colors beige or peach are a more accurate representation of the color of most Caucasians. For more details, see Whites.
[edit] Futurism
- White has also become a prominent color depicting technology and the future in the 21st century.
- It has a modern look that has just recently begun to manipulate the previous 1990's technology color--black.
[edit] Geography
- Mauna Kea means white mountain in Hawaiian because, due to its high altitude, the top of this mountain is usually covered in snow during the winter.
[edit] Gifts
- A white elephant is a useless gift or possession.
[edit] Government and Industry
- A white paper can be an authoritative report on a major issue, as by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate industry customers. It is called white paper because it was originally bound in white.
[edit] Heraldry
- In English heraldry, white or silver (color) signified brightness, purity, virtue, and innocence. (The American Girls Handy Book, p. 369)
- Arthur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that white can be considered a tincture in heraldry separate from its use to represent argent, and in fact the labels borne on the arms, crests and supporters of members of the British Royal Family other than the reigning sovereign are invariably shown as white.
[edit] Literature
- White could be associated with horror. The famous chapter 42 ("The Whiteness of The Whale") of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick speculates about it.
[edit] Meteorology
- White is commonly the color of snow and ice.
- Whiteout is a weather condition in which visibility is reduced and surface definition lost in snowy environments.
[edit] Military
- A white flag is an international sign of either surrender, or truce, that is, it is a sign of peaceful intent, typically at time of war.
- To "show the white feather" is to display cowardice. In cockfighting, a white feather in the tail is considered a mark of inferior breeding. In Victorian England a purported coward would be presented with a white feather.
[edit] Music
- The White Album, released in 1968, was the best selling record album by the Beatles.
[edit] Parapsychology
- It is believed by those adherent to Theosophy, as well as by adherents of religions derived from Theosophy such as the I AM Activity and the Church Universal and Triumphant, that the deities they regard as the governing deities of Earth, the Great White Brotherhood (Ascended masters), have white auras. (That is why they are called the Great White Brotherhood.) [2]
[edit] Politics
- The White House is the residence of the President of the United States.
- White is often associated with Conservatism (as opposed to Communism), particularly in the years following World War I, with civil wars fought between "Reds" and "Whites", for instance the Civil War in Russia and the Civil War in Finland.
- In both the French and Russian Revolutions, white symbolized royalism.
- The White Revolution (Persian: Enghelab-e-Sephid) was a far-reaching series of reforms launched in 1963 by the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
- The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of five students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor.
- The white ribbon is worn by movements denouncing violence against women. It is also worn by some feminists and was a symbol for peace in Quebec, in the beginning of 2003, as part of the popular opposition to war on Iraq.
- The Neo-Nazi group White Aryan Resistance uses the slogan White Revolution is the Only Solution.
[edit] Propaganda
- Whitewash, figuratively, means an attempt to obscure the truth by issuing a blanket of lies. See propaganda. Also, it refers to the action of burying or shoving someone's face into the snow, as a form of bullying, or harassment(generally).
[edit] Religion
- The Roman Catholic Pope's cassock is white.
- White robes (along with a green apron) are worn inside LDS Temples.[3]
[edit] Romantic Love
- White is the traditional color of bridal dress in both western (European) and Japanese weddings. In Western weddings, a white dress is thought to be symbolic of purity (the bride has not engaged in pre-marital sex). This is also said to be the symbolism of the veil.
[edit] Sonics
- White noise, in acoustics, is a sibilant sound that is often a nuisance, although it can also be deliberately created for test purposes.
[edit] Sports
- White is the color of the usual cricket clothing, usually referred to as 'whites'. It is a result of cricket being a summer game with players being exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time.
- Australian Rules Football umpires' traditional uniform color is white. Nowadays most competitions (including AFL and VFL) provide other colors to ensure the umpires aren't clashing with players uniforms for higher visibility. At lower levels, however white is still the predominant color.
- White was originally the national auto racing color of Japan until international racing colors were abandoned due to sponsorship.
[edit] Television
- In the TV series, Power Rangers and its Japanese counterpart, Super Sentai, white is a ranger color. It is usually interchangeable with pink and the white ranger can be either male or female.
[edit] Vexillology
- Vatican City has a flag of yellow and white (although in normal European heraldry one is not supposed to use these two colors together because both represent metals--yellow represents gold and white represents silver ) to show that the Church is not bound by secular rules.